left behind
by BirdPower
Summary: Feliciano just wanted to make a stroll through the city with his best friend Germany, but when the two students are suddenly attacked he has to make a painful decision. School AU, consists pairings, but they're not the focus rated M for moderate violence, coarse language, angry big brothers Friendship!GerIta, Brotherly!FeliMano, BrotherlyInsane!German Brothers, ?/Germany OC: Israel
1. missing

„Run!" whispered Ludwig close to his ear shortly before a fist collided with the blond's face.  
Feliciano didn't hesitate one second and he did the only thing he could.  
He ran faster than he had imagined he was able to to run.  
Away from the bellowing voices of the attackers, away from Ludwig who was as trying his best to keep their attention on him and not on his fleeing friend and away from the cracking sound when the blond's skull met the shining black cobbled of the rainy street.  
He didn't stop running until he reached the headmaster's office of his school, screaming crying and smearing tears and snot on headmaster Roma's Italian designer suit eager to tell him that his best friend needed help.

World's school for the gifted was a prestigious school founded by the United Nations after the big war to make sure that, regardless of the Nationality, gifted young people would be able to develop their full potential and at the same time make sure they network with each other to make sure there wasn't hatred between the elites of different nations.  
Feliciano still didn't understand how he ended up being accepted.  
It wasn't the first time one of students were a victim of ,someone who wanted to abuse the power that can with a child genius, but until now the school's security system always made it always possible to keep them unharmed. The security head was an old gruff guy with a sun-kissed, scar-covered face...Feliciano was a bit scared of him, but he was very good in his job to keep the kids safe. Until now.

Feliciano watched silently how Mr. Cohen was rubbing his eyes in frustration. He was a tired probably he hasn't slept since his ward has gone missing. They've searched every bit of town the last two days trying to track Ludwig's kidnappers, but 'til now neither him nor any of the guards under his command has found even a hair of the young boy.  
He had the Feliciano tell him three times where they were when the attack happened and what exactly the attackers said before Feliciano escaped. Sadly the Italian boy, while he did his best to remember, couldn't give him any hint on his friends location.  
Mr Cohen bowed over the map of the city, scratching his scraggy red beard deep in thoughts, and Feliciano was pretty sure the man had forgotten about him being in the room, when a sudden knock at the door startled both of them.

A moment later Mr Cohen's second in command set down a plate with buttered dark bread and a mug with black coffee on the desk and gave his boss a harsh pat on the shoulder. Feliciano forgot about Ludwig for a moment, observing the quiet conversation between the two men, that worked far too long with each other, to bother with many words.  
"fount anyding?" grunted the man with a deep German accent, leaning over his boss's shoulder to examine the map, his grayish-blond hair flowing softly over the silver-dark tousled hair of the other.  
"Hate it." muttered Cohen without looking up from the map. Feliciano was a bit puzzled but the old blond man seemed to know was his boss were talking about and hummed deeply in acknowledgment before giving him a second pat and stand tall again.  
"De boy has older brodders." he said turning and leaning against the desk. "Dey vere inform't...vill come as soon as possible." He said silently and to Feliciano it seemed like the head of Security Service hunched over the map a bit more, frowardly trying to hide the pain that was written over his face.  
"'S not de war anymore." Mr. Theuderich muttered, looking out of the window as if the cloudless sky and a gray shadow sliped of his face for a moment before he managed to will the hurt in his eyes away again blinking stubbornly."Neet ta take care of yaself, olt man. Von't help anyone ven you overvork yaself." he grunted and made his way to the door. "hey! Kit, come vid me." he ordered Feliciano to follow him and the Italian boy closed the door behind Cohen was busy trying to find the missing student, someone had to make sure the rest of school was safe and this was Mr. Theudebert's job.  
Feliciano shivered slightly, he felt like he had just woken up from nightmare.

"'S oké." said that Mr Theudebert and shoved a strand of graying blond hair behind his ear roughly.  
"Cohen's a goot guy. He kno's vat he's doink... He'll fint ya frient." A crooked grimace reminded a little bit of a smile later the man left to go back to patrolling the school grounds.  
Feliciano made his way back to his classroom, managing to smile when he saw his twin brother welcoming him with a worried look on his face. "That face doesn't fit you, Romano!" he tried to sound cheerful and sat down beside him and was just about to start a friendly chat to drown out the eerie mood in the room,when a fist suddenly found the way in his hair and yanked him upwards.

A few centimeters in front of him was the furious face of Gilbert, the youngest of Ludwig's older brothers. Feliciano knew him well because he just left the school a year ago and until then the unlike brothers were basically joined at their hip.  
If Ludwig was around, you could be sure that sooner or later his older brother would show himself and when you saw Gilbert causing mischief somewhere, you could count on it that not 2 minutes later there as Ludwig to scold him about it.  
"You f*cking traitor!" roared Gilbert shaking him, the red eyes bloodshot from anger, lack of sleep and worry.  
"You left my brother behind!" Feliciano winced when the Albino lifted his fist to hit him, closing his eyes waiting for the impact...but there was no hit.  
When Feliciano opened his eyes carefully he saw his French teacher wrestling the raging young man to the ground. "Putain the merde! Stop this!" the teacher shouted while he tried to calm Gilbert down.  
Feliciano felt the assuring hand of his twinbrother on his back when he warily straightened his back.  
"I didn't want to." he wimpered."He said that I should run."  
"OF COURSE HE SAID THAT, du dämlicher, verdammter Scheißkerl!" screamed Gilbert brimming over with a tirade of German curses.  
"Because he's a fuck*ing friend! He's loyal! He wanted to f*cking protect you sorry excuse of a friend!" he shouted hoarsly and just breathed in for a second explosion of cursing, when a sharp but quiet "Gilbert!" made him fall silent.

Feliciano turned towards the voice.  
"This won't solve anything." said a blond guy and his hooded green eyes sparkled dangerously. Feliciano didn't know him, but just by looking at the sharp face, the eyebrows kissing above the straight, thin nose and the high cheekbones there as no way to denying that this must be another brother of Ludwig. Leaning against the door frame and in calm anger mustering the scene before him the man sighed "we've got more important things to deal with right. Let's go talk to the Security Head."  
A moment later Gilbert managed to break free. Brushing his shoulder violently against Feliciano's and shoving him roughly to the side when he rushed behind his brother shouting at him to wait. Angry shouts in Berlin dialect and calm Saxon replies got quieter in the distance.  
Feliciano sank down on his chair buried head his face in his arms.  
"testa di cazzo." muttered his brother gruffly and he heard the chair legs scrape over the floor when Romano sat down, placing his feet on his desk with dull "flump".  
"As if it would have helped that idiot when when you were kidnapped too." Romano had crossed his are and grinned grimly when Feliciano looked up. "You've done hat you could by running away and making sure to call for help as fast as possible."  
"Oui." agreed their French teacher with a smile and ruffled through the Italians hair before making his way to the front of the room to start with the lesson.  
"Don't feel guilty about that. It's not your fault."


	2. Saturday

It was Saturday.  
He knew, he has been a bit too early, but his colleague, Arthur,who was also part of their little weekend hobby team has also arrived shortly after him and now it was twenty minutes after the arranged time and Ludwig as still not there.  
Arthur spit on the floor in annoyance.  
"That's wrong with the brat." he muttered and mustering Abel. "He's never been late. I know the kid since he was in kindergarten and he'd never miss an appointment of any kind!"the Dutch man shrugged. This was not like the kid at all. He's known since he was a toddler... Ludwig was neatfreak, he'd never be late to anything! The kid was always perfect on time.  
They played football on every Saturday, there was no way he'd have forgotten that.  
With them being teachers and the German boy being a few years younger and still in school, they had wanted to stop it. However Ludwig was stubborn. For two Saturdays he had been standing there on the field waiting for them for hours, while they watched him from the staff room, then they'd given up and came down to play again.  
All of them liked the tradition, even though most of the time it ended with them forgetting the ball and getting in a fight about something stupid sometimes leaving all three of them bruised and with black eyes. It was fun acting like a boy instead of a responsible adult sometimes and it was nice to see the kid relax around them.  
It had rained before, so the football area was wet and muddy, but that never had stopped them before.  
This was weird.  
It was Saturday and Ludwig was not there to play football with them. They _always_ played football on Saturdays!  
Angrily Abel kicked the ball in the air and caught it with his hands. " It's starting to rain. Do you still want to play or do you want to go inside?" he asked his colleague watching the first heavy raindrop falling on the muddy ground, drawing circles in the puddles.  
"No, let's go inside and search for the kid. I feel like giving him my two cents about not turning up when having an important appointment with his teachers." grunted the English teacher and started to runv towards the school building. When they reached the dormitory for the teachers Abel was soaked to the bones and his usually spiky hair fell soft and heavy in his face, hiding the prominent scar in his forehead. Still the muddy football in his hands he just waved Arthur good-bye and wanted to go take a hot shower and get out of his cold, wet cloths, when a hoarse voice stopped them.

"Well, that explains a lot." muttered Arthur, toweling his hair a few minutes later,looking around the complete staff in the teacher's lounge. "You guys know, that we play football every Saturday...he didn't show up." he explained.  
The teacher for French and Art sighed dramatically. " It's Saturday." he echoed Arthur "There are still some students out in town."  
the headmaster nodded "we informed the police and they bring all students back to school they can find." He nipped at his Grappa, as if he wanted to calm himself with it "It'd be great if one part of the teachers would also leave school and search if they can find either the missing boy or other student and bring them back to school."  
Abel sighed and rubbed the his forehead. It was clear that he would be one of the teachers that would be send to herd the remaining flock of students back to school... it not like Mr Roma would send someone like Mr. Edelstein for that job. He may be dense but he wasn't stupid.

He was wet to the bones for the second time this even when he came back late, shooing a young Finnish boy to the student dorms...he had found him in a pub drinking alcoholic beverage he was definitively too young for and listening to metal music. They'd have to talk about when this nightmare was over. Mr. Wang just came back too shoving a certain American troublemaker through the door muttering aggravated in Chinese. They drank a cup of tea together, talking before check the room of the security service for news a last time, then they called it a night.  
Ludwig was still still last thing Abel noticed before falling asleep was that the window of his colleague at the other side if the building was still illuminated and the shadow of the English man walked around the room restless.


	3. below the surface

His head hurt. Carefully he blinked, but no light reached his eyes. When he made a gargling sound he heard a chair cluttering over stone. Cautiously he moved his hands, that were bound behind his back, feeling cold, damp sandstone under his fingers. The echo made him guess he was in a rather big, pretty empty room "H...hallo?" he whispered quietly. His head buzzing from his own voice he could think of using the Lingua Franca, English. "Is' da irgendwer?" he tried a bit louder.  
"oi, stay quiet, kid!" grumbled a raspy voice in the dark and he startled because it was so close, that felt the breath of the unknown man on his cheek when he towered over him. "it's not like anyone can hear you, but I really don't like loud kids and I could accidentally hit a bit too much...would be sad if you die here when you still can give us a decent amount of money." With a dark chuckle a heavy boot nudge against his ribs.  
For a moment he forgot how to breath but he stayed quiet...he didn't want to die.  
Everything hurt.  
His body, his wrists, that were bound with some kind of metal thing, his torso, where he was sure there was something felt really broken, and his head...his head..he was feeling so sick, that he was almost grateful for the cloth that as wrapped tightly around his head covering his eyes. He smelled blood and he was sure it was his own, a sharp pain at the back of his pain made him guess he had an open wound there.  
He was feeling so sick that he could think.  
A second nudge with the boot later he passed out again didn't even notice anymore that he was vomiting the last remains of the lunch he ate three days ago over his prisoners pants.

Meanwhile, in the World school for the gifted Jakob Cohen was about too lose his last bit of patience trying to get any useful information out of a certain Italian boy.  
It has been 66 hours since the attack and neither him nor the police has found even a hair of the boy.  
They've search the area the two student got attacked, they searched the quarter...hell, they searched the whole town, but the rain has washed away all traces of the fight that could have been of use and noone has seen the boy. The Police left flyers with a photo of the boy at every bus stop and at every door of every shop, but it seems like Ludwig was just swallowed by the ground beneath him.  
The chances to find the the German alive became slimmer with every minute and his supposed "best friend" didn't have anything other to do to help them other than bawling his eyes out. He was on the verge of hitting the kid, like he would have when he was interrogating during the war, but to the boy's luck, Theudebert has pulled the head of security service at his arm backwards so suddenly that he was slightly bouncing off his chest. "Ca~m down..." he grumbled close to his ear"...he't help if he cou'tt"  
"Ja, ja..." hummed Cohen, rubbing his eyes in frustration. "Ja ja heißt: leck mich am Arsch..." muttered the man behind him roughly, but let his arm go and took a bit of distance again.  
"there's no neet to interhogat' de boy foa de fift' time, Jake. He dazzn't 'no moa that he alreddy tolt us."  
Cohen sighed defeated. He didn't know were to search anymore. He just didn't know what to do anymore. With a wave of his hand he send Feliciano Vargas out of the room and took a sip of his already cold coffee.  
Chance was that the kidnapper already brought their victim out of town, the police controlled every car that left town, but Jakob wasn't sure how much he could trust the abilities of the civil forces.

In front of the door Gilbert was waiting for information, in one hand his cellphone, the map of the city on the floor. With a red marker, he had marked the place where his brother has been attacked and scraggly lines build areas labeled with the names of further family members and a few friends. In groups of two they searched the city on their account. Gilbert had stayed back to coordinate the search and keep up communication between the teams.  
When Feli tried to help Gilbert told him he should go and hang himself or something and he wasn't if any help. The Italian boy never has seen him so worried and so angry.  
Romano had to spend half the afternoon in front of his brothers bedroom door until finally calmed down enough to let him in.  
Feliciano missed Ludwig.  
Ludwig would have known what to do. Ludwig was usually the one solving problems when the two of them got into trouble...but now he was the one that needed help...and Feliciano didn't know what to do.

Arthur admitted, he was worried.  
There as nothing wrong with being worried when one of your students is presumable hurt and without medical care in the hands of some ar*ehole that took him away from the security of his school...his teachers.  
It was absolutely normal to be worried and there was nothing wrong with biting his nails down to the roots because of it!  
He had been worried since the moment he noticed that the kid didn't show up for their weekly Saturday football game...Ludwig loved football, he was pretty attached to the ritual of playing with them once a week and he was never late.  
This was bad.  
Arthur thought and took a sip of tea while watching the people in front of the café passing by. He saw a kid, that he knew had graduated this year. Polish guy with green eyes he was accompanied by a slender young man with pianist hands and that he knew was Saxony...they seemed to search for something.  
Arthur knew who they're looking for.  
Time went by, but Arthur didn't want to leave yet wrecking his brain where they didn't look yet, what they missed. Hopefully the kid wasn't out of town yet!  
The Police was much more present in the last few days and so the street rats, urchins and war invalids have vanished from the surface . He just took another bite from his cucumber sandwich when something in the shadow of a house caught his attention.  
Coughing Arthur transported the piece of sandwich from the trachea back in his gorge and wiped the tears from his eyes trying to followed the shadow of the man until he was vanished under a gully cover.  
In haste he took out is phone and shakeily dialed the number of the school security service.  
THIS would explain why they didn't find any trace of the German boy! THIS could be the reason why noone saw the kid being lead or carried away!  
" Mr. Cohen! It's Kirkland. Did anyone search in the catacombs?!"


	4. datt war vielleicht nich' so ganz schlau

Cohen was cursing to himself. It was so simple!  
Why didn't _he_ think of the catacombs under the cities.  
It was a gigantic maze of tunnels under carved in sandstone under the city. A lot of houses had their basement connected to the maze and you could walk for kilometers down there without seeing the sun. It was ancient. Even in the age of the Romans, the people already hid in the tunnel systems and in during the thirty years war the majority of the inhabitants of the city stayed in there for decades to hide from the various marauding packs of mercenaries.  
Most people his age knew the maze like the back of their own hands, since the last war made them take cover there for weeks and months.  
This was so simple that it was embarrassing.  
After the war all known entrances where closed with heavy steel doors and security locks, but he always suspected that the maze was still used as a place to hide by people with shady business.  
He wanted keys for all those doors and he didn't want to dishonour his workplace by going in a obviously forbidden place without give the civil forces in town a call.  
He called the police and the chief promised to call him back to tell him the start time after he had organised a search group.  
This was good. The Police could to an official search while him and his men could sneak through and search a bit more discreetly.

Cohen opened the door of his office, to search for his colleague and would have almost fallen over a certain Albino sitting on the floor hovering over a map. Cohen blinked in surprise.  
He knew the kid, because he was a troublemaker and he found him a few times trying to climb over the school fence in the early morning.  
He also knew, because it was announced on the graduation party last summer, that Gilbert started to work in the military as a strategist. He may not have the experience, but he wasn't useless, for what Cohen planned to do.  
"Boy, if you want to help get your friends back here as fast as you can and come to my office. We've got a trace."  
There was a shadow of despair in the boys eye but he nodded frantically and grasped his cellphone in hurry.

Meanwhile Mr. Arthur Kirkland climbed down the gully and followed the sewer until he found a massive steel door. The lock was broken open the door was ajar by a few centimeters.  
Arthur hesistated to push it open and go in.  
there was at least one person inside, and while he wasn't weak, he was also noone who could win a fight with a group of thugs, that were able to easily overwhelm a big guy like Ludwig.  
Somewhere in the dark a sharp laugh made him flinch.  
"He totally barfed all over you!" echoed the unpleasant voice of a man through the tunnel behind the door.  
"Shut up!" grunted a second man. He sounded like he was pretty big and barely controlling his anger.  
"Hey kid! It's boring! Stop sleeping!" The sound of something soft and heavy scratching over damp stone floor. Arthur cursed, before he slipped through the door, he took is phone out, why it was weak, he still had a connection.  
He send Cohen the street name and a photo of the door, so they knew where to search, then he started to get closer to harsh sound of fists on skin.  
He was almost there and saw Ludwig leaned against the wall, a bandage around his head (it wasn't easy to determine if the kid was awake), when something hard hit the back of his head and he lost consciousness.

When he came back to senses he as leaning next to his student and at the other side of the room there was an relatively small guy watching a movie on his cellphone.  
Arthur made sure to not disturb him and silently turned his head towards Ludwig.  
"Oi!" he whispered quietly."You awake?"  
A silent nod from the boy before let his head fall on Arthur's shoulder, making it look like an the move of an unconscious man. The English teacher kept his eyes in their guardian.  
"You shouldn't have come here..." the boy breathed against his ears.  
"I won't let my precious little student be alone in this."  
A silent snort.  
Arthur carefully pulled the young man closer. Ludwigs cloths were wet, as if the kidnappers had tried to wake him by pouring water over him, and the skin under it was cold. He must be freezing.  
Ludwig shivered under his touch but lean in the warmth gratefully.  
Arthur didn't care anymore if it was normal or okay for him to feel this way... he's known this kid since he was a toddler he had taken care for him, since the kid was old enough to play football... he wouldn't stop caring for him now. He didn't care if it was the right thing to do as a teacher... well probably it was extremely stupid...but he felt it was the right thing to do for Arthur Kirkland, to try anything to help this student and keep him as safe as possible until help arrived.

Mr Theudebert just controlled one of the schools security cameras, when a cursing Mr Cohen almost toppled over his stepladder, making the blond man come down a bit faster than he planned.  
"Moin, Chef!" he grunted in surprise and waited patient until his boss stopped ranting and was able to explain, what happened.  
"Yò..."he said deep in thoughts after Jakob ended and stuffing his fists in the pockets of his boiler suit. "So, he gév' you a tip ta söarch in de catacomps and den he vent in dere kno'ing dat dere are peeple he verrhy likely cän not fight?!"  
"Yup."  
"Iss'er total meschugge?!"  
"Very likely."  
"Was'n Idiot!"  
"Yup!"  
"So, vat's ya plän?"

* * *

I really like writing scenes between Germania and Cohen... I just really like writing old guy bromance. 3~

"Meschugge" btw. is a german word of hebrew origin and means something like "crazy".


End file.
